


A Baker's Dozen of Demons

by RiYuYami



Series: Pulling Strings [18]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 19:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13083339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami
Summary: Sometimes perfection cannot be achieved on the first attempt, sometimes it takes a few times.Or it can take twelve fallen clones before you get perfection with the thirteenth try.





	A Baker's Dozen of Demons

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of an origin story of the Bendy and his fallen clones from before he became the official Bendy.
> 
> Related to A Promise is a Promise, Perfectly Imperfect, and Out of Line.
> 
> On with the fic!

The first Bendy was a success, in terms of appearance. He looked exactly as he should, especially since he had never even been designed in a third dimensional style before, it was such a risk. But Joey took the chance, and he was happy with the results.

Until Bendy tried to move.

He stumbled and tripped, he wasn’t able to walk well. In fact, a lot of his movements were jerky, wrong, he didn’t function right. He moved too much like a damaged human…

Joey waited a bit, to see if Bendy just needed to work out the kinks. After all, this was the first time Joey’s actually attempted to make a living cartoon with this set of spells, his other attempts had been… bad.

But hours passed, and the poor Toon was struggling, letting out pained whistles as his body didn’t seem to be getting any better. In fact, it was melting in placed.

The director decided to just put the poor demon out of his misery. It was rather upsetting to kill the thing, having struck him with a fire axe he had found. It let out a pain whistle before it turned to ink. Joey just cleaned it up, putting it back into the machine to attempt again.

The second Bendy was perfect.

He moved just right, his body was rubbery, and he even did a little tap dance.

Then he spoke.

Bendy did not have a voice in the series, just his whistling sounds, so to hear the little Toon speak, simply asking him what Joey would like him to do, it… disturbed him. Joey’s memory was excellent, he remember much of his life, and to hear the voice of a young Henry, from his childhood, come out of his prized cartoon character?

Joey might have overreacted when he took his letter opener and shoved it into Bendy’s chest. He watched the demon struggle, unable to react, except asking why, in a pained voice. It just served to piss Joey off more to hear that voice ask him like that.

He stabbed him again.

And again.

And again.

Then there was an ink puddle on the floor.

Like before, Joey just recycled the ink. He tried a different spell for the third one, still using the basic spell he did for the ink he used for the ‘special’ ink wells he gave to… well… to a certain animator who no longer mattered anymore. The third Bendy had the same voice as the second, but he lived a little longer. Just long enough to smart mouth his creator, and Joey was not in the mood for that.

The fourth had a tail, an honest mistake on Joey’s part, he used the wrong concept art.

Cutting off his tail lead to his death.

The fifth had slightly off proportions.

The sixth had three marks on his gloves instead of his buttons.

From there, the Bendys that Joey produced always had some fault, and it was driving Joey up the wall. No, his creations needed to be perfect! They were to be flawless, just like they were in the cartoons! But there was something always off about them!

Finally, the twelfth! That was the one!

Sure, he still had the Henry voice, but after a while… well… it fit, especially with the charm Bendy added to it. His actions fit his style in the cartoon, he looked exactly like he should, there wasn’t a flaw to him at all!

Except for one, little problem.

He got curious.

Bendy had found the art used for his design, and noticed a certain signature on it. He asked who ‘Henry’ was, and Joey told him not to worry about it. Bendy seemed to drop the subject, but the next day he fought with Joey, telling him he knew exactly who Henry was, that the man was his true creator, not the director!

Then he escaped.

He made it out of Joey’s office, towards the front door, so close to freedom…

Until something struck him in the head, knocking him out.

Yes, being stuck using a wheelchair to get around was a constant annoyance in Joey Drew’s life, but he moved fast in it. Not even a cartoon demon who was alive could really outrun him. Joey had struck the Toon in the head with his copy of The Illusion of Living, finding Bendy laying on the ground with a bit of ink dripping from the wound that sealed itself up rather quickly.

He took the unconscious Toon and brought him back to the Ink Machine room, putting Bendy inside, alive.

The screams were loud, and terrified, but Joey was not affected. This wasn’t the first living Bendy to be used to create another one.

He waited a month before he tried again, and promised himself that if this last attempt did not work, he would never try again. It was becoming too much of a hassle, too much of a pain in Joey’s neck to keep trying with these stupid spells and drawings. He thought for sure that Henry’s art would work! He even used the special ink!

But Joey thought it over, and decided to try one more attempt, with a certain set of drawings.

He had dug through a drawer, finding a folder with old drawings and sketches Henry had done when they were planning the first Bendy short. There were so many different sketches, different faces and poses, all of Bendy. All of them were perfect, even as sketches, they were all so full of life, exactly as Joey expected.

All of them were sketches and colored in with the ink from the skull-marked ink wells.

Quickly, Joey made his way to the Ink Machine, marking a specific seal on the ground under the spout, he knew it by heart. On the machine he made marks in ink, that vanished on the metal. Next, he slipped the papers into the location that so many drawings were placed before. With a small breath, he threw the switch, and the machine began to move.

Like the past twelve attempts, ink poured out, and like before, it began to take shape.

However, instead of Bendy just standing there, this one automatically began to move, doing a cute dance. He turned and grinned at Joey, taking a bow. “Hiya! I’m Bendy, the Dancin’ Demon!” He announced, doing a quick jig before winking.

Joey was stunned for a moment, but he smiled, clapping at the performance.

He felt it in his bones that this Bendy was right, this Bendy was… well… perfect.

And he would remain perfect, until he decided to question his direction, until he decided that he wasn’t going to follow the script of his life, until Bendy decided that he would rather involve Henry than just to do what he is told to do.

Well, sometimes one needs to figure out how to make things perfect in due time…

END

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a short one, but I wanted to mention that Joey is very specific of what he wants from his cartoons. He didn’t do much with the Boris and Alice clones he had made, he was more focused on Bendy, as that was the main character and the money maker.
> 
> It will take a while for Bendy to remember the deaths and lives of his clones, thanks to his demonic ink. He doesn’t really remember them until after his demonic powers awaken, and Norman tells him what happened before his creation.
> 
> Thanks for reading, please comment and kudos! They keep me writing for this!


End file.
